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spirit_n abase_v judgement_n zeal_n 36 3 10.2983 5 false
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A54075 The way of life and death made manifest and set before men whereby the many paths of death are impleaded, and the one path of life propounded and pleaded for in some positions concerning the apostacy from the Christian spirit and life, with some principles guiding out of it : as also in answers to some objections whereby the simplicity in some may be entangled : held forth in tender good will both Papists and Protestants who have generally erred from the faith for these many generations, since the dayes of the apostles, and with that which they have erred from are they comprehended / by Isac Pennington the younger. Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.; Fox, George, 1624-1691. Cause of all error.; Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662. Here follows the testimony concerning the estate of the true church. 1658 (1658) Wing P1219; ESTC R14864 89,559 110

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betrayed and held captive by the whorish spirit that sits ruler in judgment I do not speak of all people of all sects that they have zeal and simplicity but of some people in all sects and through all these false Churches and so the spirit which has guided the judgment that has abased the zeal and abused the sincerity and betrayed it so people have been a running running after the form and blind in judgement and lost sincerity and simplicity that has been betrayed in them though sometime appearing and stirring and so the wrong part in people has fed upon the form and appearance and the seed starved and the sincerity eaten out and so one sect hath made this the rule of their judgment and another sect another thing the rule of their judgment one cries tradition another Scriptures another cries the practice of Saints before us none of all have been guided in judgment by the spirit of the Lord and where the spirit of the Lord is not the onely rule of judgment guiding the judgment in all things that people and that man are in error and the sincerity in them hath not its free course but bound under with a spirit which is bondage and leads into bondage and when people comes to be turned to the light of Christ in them and receive a measure of the Spirit of the Lord to guide the judgment then the sincerity and simplicity and zeal wil grow and thrive and be increased but til then the good is eaten out that lies under and is oppressed and ever and alwaies the desire quenched the sincerity lost the simplicity betrayed by the spirit of whoredom which rules the judgment and these things are manifest in our age therefore all people come out of your sects and false Churches for the woman is returned and returning out of the wilderness and the seed shal spring forth as in the dayes of old E. B. A Testimony of great concernment to all that call themselves Christians but have not known the true Church of which alone the true Christian can be born THere hath been a great War between the woman and her seed and the harlot and her seed from the beginning to this day and they have each had their prevailings in the war The woman and her seed have been made strong in God to conquer some of the territories of death and to set up their life in the world Thus in the Jewish state God prepared an heaven and an earth for the woman and her seed and when that heaven and earth was shaken he prepared a more glorious heaven and earth in the Christian state Now no sooner was the Church and her seed seated in either of these but the Dragon made made war against her and in the war had power given him to recover her seat from her Thus the Devil gat possession of the Jewish state so that there was no room for the true Church there but all was in idolatry and corruption and the Lord was not served by their ceremonies by their sacrifices by their Sabbaths by their new moons by their Temple-worship c. but the Devil And the Devil also got possession of the heaven and earth in the Christian state so that in their Ordinances in their worships in their duties in that which they call their Churches God hath not been worshipped in truth but the Devil for this many ages For mark who was it that got into the Temple of God was it not Antichrist was it not the Spirit of Satan 2 Thes 2. 4. And who was it that was worshipped in all the world that had power given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations and whom all that dwel upon the earth worship was it not the Dragon Rev. 13. 7 8. Did not all the world wonder after the beast and worship the Dragon which gave power unto the beast ver 3. 4. of that Chap. The woman was assaulted here her strong holds taken from her so that she could not stay safe in that heaven and earth which God had made for her therefore there was another place prepared for her by God in the wilderness and she had wings of an Eagle given her to fly thither but the Dragon got into and held possession of that heaven where she was before Rev. 12. So that none hath known the Church all this time but he that hath been born of her in the wilderness which was a place the world never dreamed of but looked for her in the heaven and the earth which the Devil had got possession of And here they cry up the Ordidinances the Ordinances duties the Church the Ministry c. as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord not knowing in whose hands these were and whom they worshipped hereby Now consider this O ye Christians I speak what I assuredly know that God could not be truly worshipped in any of these while they were in the Devils hands but the whorish Spirit and her seed worship here and the worship of the Church and her seed was a wildernessworship or a worship which she learned of God in the wilderness Mark now and consider my testimony O ye Christians I deny all the worship all the Ordinances which were taught the Christians of old now practised by the whorish spirit for the Devil had gained it and corrupted it and having corrupted it God could not be any more worshipped in it but the Antichristian spirit sate there giving forth those things as his Laws He sate in the Temple of God and there made use of the Vessels and Ordinances which he had carried captive into his Babylon and I deny it to be possible to have any true use of these til the time of the recovery And now the time of the recovery is come and the restitution begun people know it not but cry up the old heaven and the old earth which Satan had corrupted setting it up in opposition against the new which God hath new formed and is bringing forth in true beauty and glory Now in this war though the Devil though the harlot and her seed gat the womans seat from her and banished her seed as it were out of the earth yet they were not able to touch the woman nor to over-come the life of God in her seed but onely to kil their bodies but the life was stil conqueror over them and not subjected to them They could raise up Churches and Ordinances and Ministers and duties and cause all that dwel on the earth to worship in some part or other of this Babylon but they could never make the seed bow to any of their images nor could they hurt the woman hereby who was in the wilderness out of the reach of all these And there she did eat the bread of life with tears mourning over her desolate estate and her loss of children And here alone was the true bread of life which was not to be known or
by this woman and her seed and this hath been the state of the Church for many ages since the dayes of the Apostles she hass been fled and her seed made war against and killed and her heir caught up to God and the Nations which should have been ruled by her heir the whore hass set upon them and the peoples and the multitudes which he should have governed hath been the seat of the Harlot the mother of all abominations and was it not like to be so and how should it be otherwise when the manchild the womans heir hass been caught up to God and he hass been as prevailed against and the remnant of the womans seed made war against and killed and this hath been since the dayes of the Apostles and so all you Churches and sects by what name soever you are known in the World you are the seed of the great whore and she hath brought you forth while the other woman hass lodged in the Wilderness and remains childless if any man have an ear to hear let him hear Now it may be objected to me and thus may it be said by this accompt the Church the Lambs wife hass been prevailed against by the whore because it is said she hath killed the Saints the members of Jesus and of the Church this seems to shew as if the Church of Christ had been prevailed against but Christ sayes the gates of hel shall not prevail against them but she should remain for ever and the gates of hel should not prevail against her and how doth these two things agree it seems doubtful to us may some say Answ To all this I do answer the true Church the spouse of Christ in her self was never prevailed against so as not to be in being or that she was not but in her self hass remained in being and not prevailed against so as not to have a place or being and Christs words are true she hass had a place and being to wit in the desert Wilderness which place was prepared her of God there to be fed for such a time So she hass a place and has a being though in the Wilderness a place desolate and of mourning So she hass not been prevailed against as that she hass not had a being but the Lambs wife the mother of the heir that which is perfectly so which was and is to be joyned to Christ which is of his flesh and bones taken out of him that cannot be prevailed against never was nor never shall be for the divel nor Satan hath nothing in him of whose flesh and bones she is which is taken out of him and it is as possible for to prevail against him as to prevail against her for she is of him as Eve was of Adam if any have an ear to hear they may hear But her off-spring hass been overcome her seed made war against and her heir taken away and caught up from her so she not prevailed against nor overcome though banished into the Wilderness fled thither and there hass she fed and had a place and hass been left childless as I have said So the mother and the Lambs wife hath had a being and in her selfe never prevailed against nor overcome and Christ's words are true yet hath her seed been killed and made war against and overcome as John said and both these are true and this is my answer and if any have an ear to hear they may hear though a parable to the world yet plain to the seed which now God hath raised and is raising for the woman again is returning and her seed again is springing and she is becoming as fruitful as ever and her glory shal be as great the light of heaven shal cloath her and the light of the night shal be under her feet as perfectly when she is restored as it was before the apostacy though people cannot believe this in the apostacy No revevelation nor immediate teaching nor miracles now to be expected cry the professors and these false sects and Churches it was extraordinary times and extraordinary manifestations were amongst the Apostles and Churches of old say they but the same now is not to be expected nor never to be looked for but thus they are in blindness and ignorance and unbelief But we believe the glory of this woman that hath been long fled into the wilderness and hath been long without issue while she hath been fled shal have the same fruit and issue and the same clothing that she had before she fled When the whore and her seed is removed from the face of the earth the glory of the Lambs wife shal be as great her beauty as fair her fruit as plenteous as before the whore was and they that believe it not believes not the Scriptures for that testifies of the glory of the Church to be the greatest in the last dayes as we are sure and certainly know it shal come to pass when the waters are dried up which hath been the seat of the great whore Now though all those Churches and sects of people are said to be and known to be the seed of the whore and not of the Virgin as I have declared and though Nations and Peoples and multitudes have been all running to sornication and been deceived and made drunk yet this I have to say in all sorts of people and amongst all those sects amongst Papists and Protestants and all sects risen out of them in thousands of people notwithstanding the darkness and all the Apostacy that has ruled in the general yet in some of all sorts and sects there hath been a sincerity and simplicity and a desire and zeal for God and of God in them and amongst them yet the sincerity simplicity and desire which hath stirred in some of all sects it hath no soonet appeared but it hath been smitten and betrayed by the wicked without and so by the error of judgement within for even amongst the worst of sects we know there is some in whom there is simplicity and sincerity and zeal and yet erre in judgment for this is possible and we know it is so with thousands and ten thousands at this day there may be a simplicity and zeal and sincerity of heart and yet err in judgement the judgment not truly guided by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit and a false thing even the spirit of whoredom it self ruling the judgment and be chief there and this destroyes murders and betrayes the zeal and simplicity and this is and hath been ever since the dayes of the Apostles great error in judgment and the judgement of all those sects have been mis-guided and misted and a false thing and not the spirit of the Lord has guided the judgment and thereby the true sincerity zeal and simplicity hath been enslaved and held under by reason of the erring in judgment and the state of such are truly to be lamented where simplicity is devoured and sincerity
Serpent that truth cannot come any where but it finds the enmity already stirred up and prepared to withstand it This is a new way a new light saies one we know a Religion before this came up and we wil keep to that let who wil run after these new sects and ways A natural light the old light of nature saith another or the corrupted light of Adam which hath run along through all his posterity Another out-cry is that it makes the Scriptures void and useless Others cry out that it teacheth things contrary to the Scriptures that it sets up free-wil that it leads to a covenant of works that it breaks down Relations Laws Governments takes away due respect from Magistracy and Superiours and turns the world upside down Thus the worldly spirit is every where up in arms and a zeal kindled every where to keep it out of every heart and out of every place and country Now these are not real things but such kind of slanders and reproaches as alwaies have attended truth The Prophets of God Christ and his Apostles though they have been spoken wel of afterwards yet they have ever been hated spoken il of and persecuted by the generation of professors of their age The Scribes and Pharisees could not with so great advantage have persecuted Christ and his Apostles without a seeming zeal for the Law and Prophets and yet it was the same spirit that so vehemently cryed up the Law the Prophets the Ordinances of Moses that persecuted the spirit and life in Christ and his Apostles from whence the Law the Prophets and Ordinances came And thus it is at this day though that Spirit is as blind now as it was then and cannot see through its own cover though it be as weak and narrow as theirs was The guilty chargeth the innocent that it might hide its own guilt and keep its covering The guilty Jewes and the guilty Scribes and Pharisees charged the Prophets Christ and his Apostles that they might not be found guilty by them and their formal covering rent from them And thus it is at this day Truth is risen to make manifest mens false coverings and the guilt and hypocrisy that lies hid underneath now to save themselves they are prepared before hand to lay that charge against truth which truth hath against them Search thine heart resist not the light thou that haste charged the truth with any of these things and thou wilt find it thine own condition The truth is no new light or new way and they that hold it forth do not hold forth any new way or new light but it is thou that hast left the good old light the good old way which was before the apostacy and hast fallen in with some new light some new way invented and set up since the Apostacy It is thou again that settest up the natural light the fallen wisdom the wisdom which is out of the life and in enmity with the life with this thou feedest that understanding which is to be brought to naught and when thou hast done this thy selfe then thou callest the spiritual light wherewith God hath pursued it in all ages a natural light It is thou that with this wisdom searching into the Scriptures and gathering the oldness of the letter into the old understanding makest the Scriptures void and useless to thy soul and canst not meet with that life and power which they speak of but stil art alive in thy sins and dead unto God and then thou cryest out against that which comes to discover this to thee and to bring thee out of this dead knowledg into the life of the Scriptures thou cryest out against this as if this made the Scriptures useless And when thou hast set up an whole body of knowledge religion and worship quite contrary to the Scriptures which the truth comes to make manifest then Cains nature riseth up in thee and thou takest up Cains weapons and fain wouldest thou kill thy brother because his sacrifice in the faith testifies against thine which is out of the faith and contrary to the true testimony of the Scriptures Again for free-wil and a Covenant of works Thou hast set up a religion in the old will and works not according to the new Covenant of life but according to the old Covenant of death and by this thou preachest that wil to be free which is in bonds and settest up the works of mans righteousness and conformity to the letter for the works of the new Covenant And for Governments and Laws That which is according to God which is a terror to the evil and a praise to them that do wel that which is liberty to the just and a curb to the unjust this thou art against and cryest out daily for the turning of the Magistrates Sword against the innocent because they are a light to discover thy deeds of darkness which be out of the light and disturb thy peace and thy settlement in that which is fleshly and of man and not of God So for relations and honour to Magistrates The transgressing nature hath brought up a wrong thing a fleshly thing an honour a duty which is of the flesh and pleaseth the flesh and is not according to God And this is not honour indeed not an honour that wil stand not an honour that will be justified in the sight of God but is a shame to them that give it and a shame to them that receive it discovering that they are servants to the flesh giving to and receiving from the fleshly part that which the fleshly part which crucifies the life cals for and is pleased with All that the light doth to these things is to discover and condemn them and the end of its discovery is that they might be removed and truth and righteousness brought in the stead of them But mans evil heart which is the cause of them cries out against the light as if the light brought them whereas if man could but be quiet and stil and suffer the work of the light upon him he would find that the same light which discovereth them would also purge them away and leave neither root nor branch of iniquity either in mens hearts or in relations or families or towns or cities or laws or governments and there would be no want of honour Now though the Serpents wisdom is irreconcilable that understanding which stands there cannot be satisfied but must be confounded and brought to nought 1 Cor. 1. 19. yet because underneath all this there is a simplicity in some which is betrayed for the relief of that somewhat further may be spoken in answer to these things Object 1. To the first Objection that this is a new way or new light I answer Answ It is new indeed to them who have lain long in the Apostacy and set up another light but it is not new in it self but the same that was in the beginning yea and before the beginning also